MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

3/23 Decisions, decisions

The Cubs will trim the spring roster to 30 on Friday. Right now, it’s at 40, but that includes pitchers Ted Lilly and Angel Guzman, who will both open the season on the disabled list. After Monday’s game, Lou Piniella met with GM Jim Hendry, the coaches and front office staff to discuss the final roster decisions.

The staff is weighing how it wants to handle the bench makeup. For example, they’d be more inclined to keep outfielder Tyler Colvin if he was going to get at least three starts a week to stay sharp rather than just come off the bench in a double switch.

So far, Mike Fontenot has looked fine at shortstop. If he can handle that, the team might be more inclined to keep someone like Chad Tracy or Kevin Millar, who are both non-roster invitees and both can contribute offensively.

“I think he’s done fine,” Hendry said of Millar. “He brings a lot to the table. We knew that when we signed him. It wasn’t just show up ‘cuz we like you. We have to balance how much does he have left, can he hit off the bench, the intangibles he brings.”

* Xavier Nady will begin playing in the outfield in the next 10 days, including some games at Fitch Park with the Minor League teams. There has been no talk about having Nady open the season on the DL. He’s coming back from Tommy John surgery on his right elbow. If Nady is in the outfield in a regular season game, the Cubs will take precautions to protect his elbow. This is his second Tommy John procedure.

Like this:

Related

2 Comments

Wow, cubsfan@gmail.com…Now I don’t feel as if I’m the only one out here scratching my head not only over who Pinella decides to bring north but also the options Hendry has given him. AND, what exactly are the precautions for Nady’s REGULAR SEASON games? Is Hendry going to make the opposition sign papers that prevent them from advancing to the next base when the ball is hit to Nady? Obviously Millar is not the only “funny man” in the organization as Hendry is the class clown. Colvin should be starting with Fuld on the bench but that’s decades away with Hendry in charge. Pinella set the bar quite high by being pleased with “fine” from Millar. Wasn’t Castro “fine” too?

This is why the cubs havent won in 100+ years. They are very short sighted. The fact that they are considering keeping both Millar and Tracy is a joke. Millar is washed up, he has batted 300 in limited ab’s during spring training and all the sudden he is a must? Look what he has done over the past 2 seasons. Furthermore, the fact that they think Colvin is better on the bench after 40 abs of spring training is also a joke. Clearly they are different players, but if Piniella was a numbers man as he claims to be, then Fuld is the obvious choice. Fuld batted 300 last year and has a career obp in the 370 neighborhood. He plays better defense and can steal bases. Finally, the fact that Jeff Baker, who outplayed Fontenot last year (dramtically) has been assigned to the bench is also laughable. The cubs make decisions based on 2 weeks of spring training. They could be top to bottom the worst run organization in all of baseball.

Meta

The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.